Page 155 of The Twelve Months of Christmas
Food, laughter, happy kids. Oh, yes, happy New Year, Sunny thought as she cheered Bella on when it was her turn to try to bowl a strike.
Bella had knocked down eight pins when Sunny’s phone rang. She saw the name on the screen and her heart felt like a bowling ball had crashed into it. Arianna and Alden had planned a quiet evening with Mia and Sophie and should have been happily watching TV or playing a game. There was no reason Arianna would be calling her, except...
She took the call. “What’s happening?”
“It’s Mom.”
THE NEW YEAR
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“She couldn’t breathe,” Arianna explained. “We’re at the hospital and she’s on oxygen.”
“I’ll be right there,” Sunny said.
“No, don’t come. There’s nothing you can do. Just please let Molly and Ava know and...pray.”
She wasn’t sure what she wanted her friends to pray. The inevitable had come. Mia would soon be gone.
This couldn’t be happening. Not her mother. Not yet.
She sat in a chair next to the bed, wishing Alden was with her, but thankful he was watching over Sophie, and doubly thankful that Sophie had already been in bed by the time they decided Mia was going to the hospital.
She heard footsteps and turned. Alden! “Where’s Sophie?” she demanded sharply.
“I took her over to Ava’s to spend the night. Molly and Reggie are there and they’re all partying. She doesn’t know your mom’s here. I just told her going to Ava’s was a New Year’s surprise.” He came and stood behind Arianna, put his hands on her shoulders. “I couldn’t let you be here alone.”
She nodded gratefully, returned her attention to the frail figure on the bed. She could almost feel her mother straining to be free, to move on. She was the only thing holding Mia there.
“Oh, Mom, how do I let go?” she whimpered, and Alden squeezed her shoulders. “You’ve always been there for me. I can’t imagine this world without you in it.”I’m not letting go!
But by morning she knew she had to.
It was a peaceful departure. The nurse on duty unplugged the life support system, and Arianna held her mother’s hand. “Go find Daddy, and be happy,” she said.
The monitor told her when her mother had left, and she threw herself over her body and wept, Alden holding on to her the whole time. New Year’s Day. Her mother had left her to start the New Year alone.
But not alone. Alden was with her. She had her daughter, her friends.
And a big mother-sized hole in her heart.
It was a struggle over the next few days. The first challenge came the afternoon of New Year’s Day, trying to help Sophie understand that now that Grammy was with the angels, she wouldn’t be with them anymore.
“But I want her here,” Sophie protested tearfully.
You and me both.
“We didn’t finish my blanket.”
“I know, and I’m sorry. I’ll help you finish it.”After a few YouTube tutorials. “Meanwhile, you can curl up in the blanket Grammy made you.” Arianna wrapped the blanket around her daughter’s shoulders. “Can you feel her?”
Sophie sniffed, nodded and smiled. “I can.”
Thank God for a child’s imagination.
Ava showed up with Paisley, bringing the distraction of a playmate, and helped Arianna make her to-do list. The business of death was a long and complicated one, that demanded forms be filled out and plans be made.
Mia would be buried next to her husband in the nearby cemetery. There would be a memorial service...later, when Arianna could deal with it.
